I don't want to be treated like everyone else. I want everyone else to be treated like me.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Further Reflections On The Battlestar Galactica Finale

Can't help myself, it's not often that a television show engages the mind as well as the emotions.

Here be spoilers.

I was not surprised that the resolution of the series would bring the survivors of the Twelve Colonies here. That's a common trope in both science fiction and New Age pseudo-science (remember von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" from the 1970s). The unexpected part was that the BSG survivors got here so far back in our past: 150,000 years!

The time capsule approach to time travel was pretty cool. No deus ex machina here, as long as you discount the FTL jump technology.

It felt like an appropriate and proportionate response that Boomer and Tory received rough justice at the hands of Athena and Tyrol, respectively.

It comes as no surprise that a show that demands you take faith seriously would demand you do the same with angels. The identity of the angels, though? That, my friends, requires a bit more pondering.

For a show with such an Old Testament feel, the redemption of Gaius Baltar was a nice touch.

Lee Adama, Luddite! It's rare to see a story deal with a society that uses high technology to survive long enough to reach a point that they can recognize how their use of that technology is damaging them spiritually, that decides to discard their technology so that they can start anew, and that actually follows through on the decision. That's moral courage, people.

If my count is correct, the role of Moses in this drama took four parts: Adama, Roslin, Starbuck, and "Galactica" herself. And they all got to see the Promised Land, even though none of them got to dwell there.

Our last image before the fade to the ending credits was of Six and Baltar, arm-in-arm walking away from us, becoming lost in the Manhattan crowd. With the strong notion of cycles throughout not only this episode but the entire series, I'm trying to remember if the miniseries began with them arm-in-arm walking toward us? I'm thinking no, that it began with Six alone, in her sexy red dress, on her way to meet Baltar. If that's not a false memory, then I'll leave BSG taking away the message that cycles of destruction can be broken, and that we certainly, no matter who we are and what we've done, do not have to end up alone.